I'm perhaps too ready to excuse those who butcher the language; but I've long known, and sometimes used, the expression "on tenterhooks" (anxiously waiting to see how something is going to work out), without having the faintest idea what a "tenterhook" was -- and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I feel that the word's lacking a literal significance for people, makes them more likely to mangle it.

Googling took me to The Free Dictionary: which says that the expression is "based on the literal meaning of "tenterhook" (a hook that holds cloth that is stretched to dry), suggesting that someone's emotions are tightly stretched like a piece of cloth held by tenterhooks." This whole thing seems rather far-fetched to me; nonetheless, colloquial English clearly took "on tenterhooks" to its bosom, for quite a long while.

It does seem rather farfetched, doesn't it? I don't even remember where I picked it up...possibly a book, but like you, I didn't really know the meaning until I purposely went and looked it up. I just knew how to use it.

Yeah, apostrophe abuse gets to me big-time. Also, it annoys me when people confuse "faze" and "phase" (as in, "He noticed the cat was on fire, but it didn't phase him, he just dumped the champagne bottle on her and went on talking to the Prime Minister". It's faze).

My paper (which is a major paper, not a local rag) got the phase/faze thing wrong in a story today. Obviously, too many editors have been laid off!

In Miley Cyrus' new song - she says, "Don't you know it's we who own the night . . ." well, ok, I guess she gets points for being grammatically correct, but in the same song she says, "Don't take nothing from nobody."

Double negatives: "I'm not doing nothing wrong!"Not understanding plurals: "John and Fred is friends," which occurs unfortunately frequently in longer sentences. Or, the worst, "The data shows..." "The oxen is..." etc.Mixing British and American spelling. Choose one and stick with it. it doesn't matter which. Just be consistent. You can't mix-and-match.

And homophones. Especially those with apostrophes. "It's" and "its", "who's" and "whose", "they're" and "their" or "there", and so on. They're not hard. You only have to learn one very simple rule for them and that's it. I teach five year old children how to do this and they manage fine.

Definitely not discrete = comes in individual units. For example, the number of people in your household is a discrete variable. You can't have 5.25 people in your house. If you do, then spelling is the least of your problems.

Using "myself" incorrectly. I see it a lot when people are trying to write more persuasively or sound formal. "My kids and myself were at a restaurant...." "The server asked my spouse and myself to...." No! "My kids and I," "my spouse and me"!

I also despise another formal/persuasive writing tick: "being that." "Being that it was almost dinner time, my husband and myself went to a restaurant." No! "It was almost dinner time, so my husband and I went to a restaurant." "Being that" is meaningless and grammatically incorrect filler, and actually weakens your sentence.

Also, 'on tenterhooks' doesn't sound that far-fetched to me. When I was a child we had a stretcher that we'd set up in the back yard to dry curtains or sheets. The fabric was held in place by tenterhooks and it was very tight indeed. The idea was to stretch the fabric so tight that no ironing was needed.